The Transylvanian hieromonk, iconographer, and preacher whose ministry at the monastery of Prislop drew vast crowds, and who suffered repeated imprisonment and surveillance under the communist regime.
- Born
- September 29, 1910 (Vața de Sus, Transylvania)
- Reposed
- November 28, 1989 (Sinaia)
- See
- Prislop Monastery
- Feast
- November 28
He was born Zian Boca in 1910 in a village of the Transylvanian highlands, and studied theology at Sibiu and fine arts in Bucharest before traveling to Mount Athos. Returning home, he was tonsured a monk with the name Arsenie and ordained.
At the monastery of Prislop, which he labored to restore, his preaching and confession drew immense throngs of the faithful from across the region, and his painting and iconography filled its church.
The communist authorities, alarmed by his influence, arrested him repeatedly from the late 1940s onward; he passed through the prisons and forced-labor camps, including the canal works, and was kept under constant surveillance and forbidden to serve.
Forbidden the priesthood, he spent his last decades painting at the church of Drăgănescu near Bucharest and counseling the many who still sought him out. He reposed at Sinaia on November 28, 1989, and his grave at Prislop became a place of unceasing pilgrimage.
Books in print
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- Father Arsenie Boca, Wonderfully ExceptionalAbout Georgeta Germina Punga-Herbreteau · Books on DemandA biographical portrait of Father Arsenie Boca of Prislop — hieromonk, iconographer, and spiritual father — whose gift of discernment drew crowds and whose witness endured through years in communist prisons.Buy on Amazon
Holy St. Arsenius of Prislop, pray to God for us.